Saying ‘Yes’ to a Social Europe
- What is Social Europe and how will voting ‘Yes’ make a difference?
- Social Europe is a vision for Europe that goes back to post-WII reconstruction. All the main European countries, including the UK, looked for a framework through which to heal the conflicts between nations that have characterised the history of Europe.
- The central underlying principle is to create a more equal society: ending poverty and poverty wages, guaranteeing fundamental human rights, essential services, employment and fairness.
- It is a Social Europe that has delivered vital social rights and protections like including access to paid annual holidays, improved health and safety protection, rights to unpaid parental leave, rights to time off work for urgent family reasons, equal treatment rights for part-time, fixed-term and agency workers and much, much more.
- Workers, citizens and civic society are at the heart of this vision and one of the main criticisms of the European Union in its current form is the rise of neo-liberalism that sees Europe embrace austerity measures in Greece or global trade deals like TTIP.
- Trade Unions, MEPS and consultative bodies like the European Economic and Social Committee continue to oppose Europe in its current form and promote campaigns and policies that support a Social Europe.
Campaigning for a Europe for working people
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